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‘I accept decision, will talk to colleagues’: SP's Atul Pradhan after party replaces him as Meerut candidate
In place of Atul Pradhan, who himself replaced advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh, the SP's original Meerut candidate, the party has now picked Sunita Verma.
After Samajwadi Party (SP) changed its candidate for Uttar Pradesh's Meerut Lok Sabha constituency for a second time, party legislator Atul Pradhan, the replaced nominee, said that while he accepts the decision, he will ‘hold a discussion’ with colleagues soon.
“I humbly accept SP chief Akhilesh Yadav ji's decision. I will soon sit and talk with my colleagues,” Pradhan posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Separately, speaking to news agency ANI, the SP's Sardhana MLA remarked that the ‘final decision has been made.’
“There are a lot of twists and turns in politics and real life. I believe in accepting the party's decision,” Pradhan said.
In place of Pradhan, a first-time MLA, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party has now picked Sunita Verma, wife of former legislator Yogesh Verma. Pradhan himself had replaced SP's original candidate for the Meerut seat, advocate Bhanu Pratap Singh. The announcement of Singh's candidature, however, had caused ‘unease’ among local Samajwadi workers, prompting the SP to reconsider its nominee. Singh was eventually dropped and replaced on Monday.
From Meerut, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in the 1980's ‘Ramayan’ TV serial. Govil's nomination followed the January opening of Ram Mandir in Uttar Pradesh's temple town of Ayodhya; with the temple, the BJP, which governs both Uttar Pradesh and the Centre, fulfilled a key promise made by it in its manifesto for the previous 2019 general elections.
In the three previous Lok Sabha polls (2009, 2014, 2019) the Meerut seat was won by the BJP's Rajendra Agarwal, in whose place the saffron party has now given ticket to Govil, who joined the party in March 2021.
Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state, sends 80 members to the 543-seat Lok Sabha. This is by far the highest representation for any state/Union territory, with Maharashtra (48) next, followed by West Bengal (42).
